What the last several months in Israel have confirmed for us is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (of the Likud party) is a political animal who just gave a master class in which he schooled his supposed partner in a rotation government, the political novice Benny Gantz of the Blue & White party.
Gantz - who led the party attempting to unseat Netanyahu - after failing in three elections to get the mandate necessary to do so, ended up joining a coalition government with Netanyahu back in early May. Yet it seemed that Blue & White did not get any of their positions into the government platform - just ministerial jobs for their people and a rotation as Prime Minister (and a made-up title as Alternate Prime Minister in the meantime). This created the most bloated and wasteful government in Israel's history, all at a time of historic financial hardship and unemployment due to the coronavirus epidemic.
Gantz decided to come into the government in order to have a stable government in the fight against coronavirus and yet from the moment the new government was formed, Israel's coronavirus response cratered, going from being one of the best in the world to now having the fifth-highest infection rate in the world, even passing the US last week, though this also has much to do with a massive increase in testing in Israel, which naturally has discovered more cases [insert Trump joke here if you are so inclined]. While the numbers have stabilized this past week, the administration's handling of this epidemic has been anything but stable, with constant fighting and bickering and new regulations being added and removed weekly if not daily. This of course has led to recent protests all around the country against Netanyahu's leadership. His approval rating when it comes to handling the coronavirus situation has dropped to just 10-25%. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/one-in-ten-israelis-fully-support-netanyahus-handling-of-coronavirus-637627
Well now those protesting may actually get what they want. The chance- yet again - to unseat Netanyahu. That is because Netanyahu - to nobody's surprise - is considering not honoring the agreement that he signed with Gantz. Netanyahu was supposed to be Prime Minister for 1.5 years, Gantz for 2 years and Netanyahu again for the last 6 months. That's right - despite his claiming not to want them - he seems to be leading the country towards brand-new elections in November, which would be our fourth elections in just over a year and a half.
If we go to elections, it seems Netanyahu is banking on the inevitable demise of the Blue & White Party - for its incredible lack of political acumen and betrayal of its voters who did not want to join with Netanyahu [and the fact that centrist parties in Israel always die and get reincarnated every election] being able to outweigh the current resentment against his leadership. All the right wing would need is a few more seats and Netanyahu could form his own government, just in time to extricate himself from his corruption trial which is due to start in January.
So how is Netanyahu possibly going to pull this off - and what are his other options? Check out this great article here: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/benjamin-netanyahu/is-israel-going-to-elections-here-are-netanyahus-5-options-637191
Who would be to blame for going to elections yet again? The public is pretty clear on that. Who would win the elections? Well it looks like we'd be stuck yet again... https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/68-percent-say-election-would-be-netanyahus-fault-jerusalem-post-group-poll-637759
Can this even be stopped? Find out here: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/can-kamikaze-drive-to-elections-be-stopped-analysis-637363
Full [humorous but sad] disclaimer: As a tour guide of Israel, being currently unemployed, I might get double pay on election day, but even I know that 2 x 0 = 0. So I'm going to have to come out against it.
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